“Hold on there,” she said, her voice still calm. It was the same voice she used to defuse hostile situations. The same voice she’d used to talk a jumper from the Foresthill Bridge. The same voice she’d used to calm Rafe whenever he’d lost his temper over the past year.

André’s chest was pumping, his rage palpable. “What the fuck is this, Sokolov?”

Rafe glanced behind Erin at the Bunker kid, who was cowering in fear. “I’m not sure,” he said, feeling some of his reason return. “It seems we have a new complication.”

André stepped closer to Erin, glaring down at Bunker. “Start talking, asswipe.”

Erin placed a palm on André’s chest. “Back off, sir.”

André started to snarl at Erin, but she whipped out her badge at the same time Rafe said, “She’s my partner. Detective Erin Rhee, SacPD Homicide.” He frowned at Erin. “You should have called first. Given us a heads-up.”

“I can see that now,” Erin said wryly. She looked over her shoulder. “You okay, kid?”

“No, he is not okay!” the older woman shouted.

“Mom, chill,” Bunker said stiffly. “I’m not hurt.”

“He would have killed you,” the woman said hoarsely. Now that the situation was cycling down, tears gathered in the woman’s eyes.

“No, I wouldn’t have,” Rafe said, still angry, but no longer out of his head with it. “What the hell were you thinking, coming up to knock on my door? And what were you thinking, Erin, escorting them?”

Erin lifted a brow, her whole demeanor going frosty. “I was thinking that my smart, rational partner might like to hear the truth.”

“What’s going on here?” Gideon said, joining the welcoming committee. He didn’t shout, though, so maybe he’d heard what Erin had been saying.

Erin exhaled again. “Okay, let’s start over again. I should have called first. I didn’t know you’d figured out that Mr. Bunker here had made the anonymous call to NOPD, or I would have handled this differently. Mr. Bunker, Mrs. Bunker, you have my sincere apologies.”

“It’s okay,” Bunker said, his voice like gravel. High-pitched, squeaky gravel. Rafe wasn’t sure how the guy managed it. “If I was in their place, I would have done the same thing. Well, maybe not the same thing, because I’m not a million feet tall and can’t bench-press a draft horse.”

“Yep,” Gideon said dryly. “This is the anonymous caller, all right.”

Twin flags of color stained Bunker’s pale cheeks. “I told Special Agent Molina what happened. She didn’t arrest me.”

“Congratulations,” Rafe drawled. “Now tell the rest of us what the fuck is going on here.”

“Language, Raphael,” Irina tutted. She pushed them out of the doorway and onto the front porch, pulling the door closed behind her. It opened right back up, Sasha and Daisy following her. Daisy grabbed Gideon’s arm and hugged him to her side. Sasha stood next to Rafe, arms crossed over her chest, glaring daggers, first at Bunker, then at Erin.

Irina sighed loudly. “First of all, my seventeen-year-old daughter is upstairs studying. I know she hears the F-bomb at school, but I’d prefer she not hear it at home.”